Bayou by Jeremy Love

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I had not even heard of DC's Zuda experiment until it was already over and dead. Katya sent me a reading suggestion (today's book) and that's how I learned about what sounds like it must have been cool before they shuttered it and took everything down. But I'll never know how closely it approximated its attempted cool and all I can judge it by now is the comics it left behind.

Bayou takes place in the South, 1933, and, as you might expect, the story grows out of the era's plainfaced and violent racism.

Scene one: A little black girl is required by the white sheriff to dive into the bayou to help recover the body of a lynched black boy. While down there, she sees not just the body, but also a living version of the dead boy, with butterfly wings.

Having established the supernatural element, Love slowly builds the tension. Most of the horror comes from the realistic portrayals of bigotry, so when a supernatural character suddenly acts badly, it's utterly shocking --- a fascinating variation on typical horror tropes.

This volume ends just as the story gets going which is hella obnoxious, but I suspect that is because this was as far as the story had progressed before Zuda went under and now, to gauge interest in more story, they have published a book to see how it does.

I got mine from the library and with no promise of more, I'm not likely to buy my own copy. I hope it does well though as, according to Love, The story comes to a definite end at around page 500. and I hope he gets to take it all the way.